merits excelled the best of men I ever met with; and I am so sensible of your reciprocal affection, that I know the power of God only can support you under such a separation, which I believe was more terrible than death itself. But, my dear friend, your sorrow is not as one without hope. Use your utmost endeavours to submit to the hand of the Almighty, with as much resignation in this as you did in your own distemper, though that only assaulted your body, while this pierces your heart. You must remember, that it was the same merciful God that gave you him, who has now taken him to himself; and in the midst of your afflictions, bless God for sparing you so long for the sake of your children. I hope you will consider that this parting is to his inexpressible advantage, and has removed him from a transitory and imperfect, to an everlasting happiness, whither, I doubt not, you are daily preparing to follow him; and since it has pleased God to deny you the further assistance of such an example and counsellor, he will abundantly recompence that loss by a greater measure of his grace, to carry you through those trials and temptations to which you are daily exposed; unless you neglect to implore his help, by giving up yourself to such melancholy as must discompose your faculties, while it weakens your natural constitution. If the saints in heaven are acquainted with what happens in this lower world, they must disapprove of such a conduct as lead them to contend with their greatest benefactor and best friend. Shall the thing formed say to his maker why hast thou done so ? the time is fast approaching when you, being freed from all entanglements with this sublunary world, must visit those regions where you will again see your beloved spouse, in a state never to be interrupted, never to

have an end. The miseries of this world must have an end, and so must our mourning. This I have learned even from heathen sages, that all violent pains are short, and but of a transitory duration. But we Christians are obliged to consider affliction in a quite different light, as the chastisement of our Heavenly Father, whose benevolence is his darling attribute.

If the dissolution of the righteous is to exempt them from labour, though our temporal interest makes us eager to detain them longer with us, yet the sense of what they enjoy in heaven, must be a great means of abating our grief; some, indeed, have so little comfort in this world, that they are ready to say with Job of old, "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul, which long for death, and it cometh not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures; which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave?"

Your most flattering hopes could not, in the course of nature, have been many years longer gratified with his company; therefore you must not spend the remainder of your days in mourning, but being fully convinced of the vanity of every thing mortal, let us submit to every alteration, as the servants of God, who has graciously promised to lay no more upon us than we can bear. That you may experience that mercy to assist you in this trial of your faith and patience, is the sincere prayer of,-Dear Madam,

Your ever affectionate Friend.

LETTER CXXXIX.

From a Gentleman to his Friend in distressed circumstances, who had endeavoured to conceal his Poverty.

Dear Sir, I am extremely concerned to find you have so ill an opinion of me as to hide your misfortunes, and let me hear of them from another hand. Í know not how to interpret your conduct, as it makes me fear you never esteemed my friendship, if you could imagine that any alteration in your circumstances should ever be able to change my love. I had a different opinion of our mutual obligations to each other, and should have thought it an injury to your generous nature, had 1 concealed any thing concerning myself from you, though it might have lessened me in your esteem. I hoped, till now, you had put the same confidence in me, who had nothing to recommend me to your favour, but plain sincerity of soul; and whose sole design was to promote the happiness of my friend.

I dare not quarrel with you now, lest you should consider me as taking the advantage of you in your present distress, and induce you to break off a correspondence as dear to me as ever; and this leads me to say something of real friendship in general. Real friendship is not confined to any station in life; it is common in the meanest cottage, and has even sometimes been found in the palace; simplicity of manners, and integrity in all our actions, naturally leads us to expect sincerity in the conduct of those with whom we are any way connected. The imperfections incident to human nature are so numerous, that we are solicitous of finding some person to whom we can unbosom our minds, and lay open the inmost recesses of our hearts. Á rcal

friend, in order to preserve the character he has assumed, will, in the first place, endeavour to discharge every duty incumbent upon him to all his fellow-creatures. But still there is something wanting; and although we may be philanthropists in general, yet we like to place our affections on one particular object.

Why, my friend, any suspicion of my sincerity? why did you conceal your distress from me? friendship is of too sacred a nature to be trifled with, and the man who does not act consistent with his profession, prostitutes that amiable appellation. No mental reservation can be used in friendship, for whenever that happens, there is some doubt of sincerity, which, for the most part, ends either in a total indifference, or, which is infinitely worse, an absolute hatred. I am sorry to say, that there are few people who either know or value the blessings of friendship; if they did, they would not, upon every frivolous occasion, find fault with the couduct of their fellow-creatures.

At present, my dear friend, let my purse (however empty) be at your service, but let it never be more open than my heart. Conceal nothing from me, and all I have is yours. We were once friends, let us only remain sc. Let me hear an account from you of your present circumstances, and my last shilling shall be spent in your service. Let the sincerity of my friendship be estimated only according to my actions, and if it shall appear that I have acted inconsistent with the sacred name of friendship, let me be for ever blotted out of your memory Sir, your sincere well-wisher.

I am,

LETTER CXL.

From a Gentleman lately returned from his Travels, to his Friend, concerning Loyalty.

Dear Sir, It is very natural for the most curious travellers, after having spent some time abroad, to return with joy to their own country; but much more pleasant to me, who did not go out of it by my own choice, but impelled by necessity.

When I returned, I hoped to find a general tranquillity among all ranks of people, and the animosities which subsisted when I went abroad, buried in perpetual oblivion. But I was strangely amazed to find the same spirit of murmuring as before. In one place the ministry are said to be seeking the loaves and the fishes, and the patriots are endeavouring to dispossess them, with no other view than to obtain their places. In another place we are told that the ministers are a set of abandoned debauchees ; and when the courtiers return the compliment to the patriots, the answer is, that a man may be an abandoned villain, a scandal to human nature, and yet a lover of his country. If you ask these several sorts of gentlemen what it is they wish for, you will find they have several ends in view; some of them are men that have, by their extravagance, spent their fortunes, lost their credit, and therefore are in a violent haste for a war, in hopes, by plunder, to replenish their pockets, like vultures who keep hovering over a dead carcase. They speak aloud just as they would have it, that all things are running to confusion. Others, like crows, love the fruits of the earth, but hate the smell of gunpowder; and these affirm, as positively, though not so loudly, that we shall be inevitably ruined unless there is a change of the ministry. A third sort of this disaffected party, are a set of